Angry Birds £0.59

Angry Birds is a catapult game where you assist several angry birds as they seek revenge on a gang of egg-stealing green pigs. Angry Birds is currently the top paid for app in the app store. For good reason as well it is probably the best illustrated app and by far the most addictive game I have played having sunk hours and hours of my time into playing it.

The most exciting news is that The Angry Birds team has announced they will be releasing an update very soon for the game with 40 new levels. They have even released a new trailer for the game that is easily one of the best iPhone game trailers I’ve seen. Love the music!

[youtube video=zIFk9epuyW4]

Doodle Jump £0.59

I really like simple style games like Doodle Jump and Angry Birds more then the big console style games. They just seem to work better on the iPhone so you can have a quick 5 minutes on the game while you are waiting for the bus, train or girlfriend to get ready and not get too engrossed in an in depth story plot.

The aim of the game is to basically get as high as possible. Jumping on the platforms make you jump higher and by tilting your iPhone left and right and you can adjust your characters movement. Like Angry Birds it is seriously addictive.

Fighting Fantasy £1.79

I was a huge fan of the Fighting Fantasy books in the 80′s as a kid so when I saw they had released an iPhone version of the books I just had to buy them. ‘The Warlock of Firetop Mountain’ is one they have released to good reviews. I remember playing this at night for hours under my covers with a torch and dice . Some people find the battle and dice rolling sequences very slow and annoying but I love them. I remember spending hours with hundreds of bits of paper painfully adding up my battles calculating my skill stamina and luck points.

If you love Fantasy books and enjoy spending time working out puzzles and exploring castles dungeons then this app is for you! With other books on their way I think I’ll be buying them all. ‘City of thieves’ being one of my favorite when I was a kid.

Amateur Surgeon £0.59

Amateur Surgeon was a random buy for me I loved the look of the illustrations and bought it on the bases that I wanted to hack and slash people up then mend them again (weird I know). That is more or less what you actually do in game, characters come to you in need of a surgeon and you help them with your basic set of surgeons tools, including a chainsaw, pizza cutter, Zippo lighter, stapler and a vacuum cleaner.

Once inside a patient you have to sort of guess which tools you have to use to remove certain objects or to purely heal the injured/dieing character.

Zombie Farm (Free)

This is the tackiest game of my selection but it was free so I didn’t mind downloading it and testing it out. I admit this game is not one of the best iPhone games but I quite like the illustrations and growing my own zombies so thought I’d include it.  Spending a few minutes a day tending to your zombie farm will become a tad tedious but once you have enough zombies to attack the villages and homes of people I found it all worth while.

Keep your zombies fed by letting them eat the local farm hands. Om nom nom

Pocket God £0.59

Pocket God is a hugely popular god sim on the iPhone. It was voted the best App Ever in a contest run by Jeff Scott, whose blog monitors 140,000 apps. You are the god of these little pocket people. You can change location on a map make them fish be eaten by dinosaurs throw them around drown them or maybe you can just be nice.

Pocket God was created by Bolt Creative. I have also seen a couple of app games Bolt Creative have in the pipe line that look pretty cool including a medieval sim game.

Price:  $0.99 / £0.59

At last the official instrument of Zelda has come to the iPhone! I have always dreamt of the day I could roam around the land playing my very own Ocarina, opening secret caves and calling horses to me willy nilly.

Well now I can do it and for only £0.59p! This app seems to have filled a huge void in my life! My girlfriend on the other hand now wants to break up with me as she realizes the full extent of my inability to please a woman. I thought four hours a night serenading her on my (pretend) wind instrument did it for most girls but obviously not. Owell I still have my Ocarina!

From some of the reviews I have read I think some people have taken the Ocarina app a little too seriously saying absurd things like:

Now any idiot with no Musical talent thinks they can play this thing like a pro!

So what?! I think these people need to chill as this app is totally for the lolz. Even though I am thinking about making a band of 4 Ocarina players called ‘The Ocarinas’ because I am so damn good at playing it. Just think of the groupies!

Here is a little recording I made of myself playing last night can you guess where the songs from? Don’t worry you will not be as good as me right away, it takes practice.

Listen here

So how does this app work?

The Ocarina is sensitive to your breath, touch and movements. Blowing into the microphone at the bottom of your iPhone creates a flute like sound then holding down any of the touch sensitive holes on the screen makes sweet music. You can even tilt your iPhone/Ocarina to change vibrato rate and depth.

You can listen in on Ocarina players all over the world just by tapping the globe icon at the bottom of the screen. Ocarina fans from all over the world have posted hundreds of free easy–to-read scores at http://ocarina.smule.com/.

Buying this app will make you friends, help you learn probably the best musical instrument in the world and gain you the trust and respect of all woodland creatures in Hyrule which is helpful in case you get lost. So Buy it and get jammin.

The iPad has been designed and created for media consumers. It is not geared towards the design community which is probably why we have had such an outcry about the usability of Apple’s new product. It runs the OS software the iPhone uses and not full OS X which is seen as a big let down by designers. Using the same software as the iPhone means that like iPhone the iPad will not allow multitasking.

The size of the device however I really do like. I like the large bezel around the edge it has be thick because of the way it’s held! Not quite sure why everybody keeps slagging this feature so much. The size of the screen is perfect for browsing sites I really don’t think there will be too many arguments about its outstanding browsing capabilities.

What the iPad does not have is a real usefulness and an area it can currently fill and help me with my design. Which brings me to my main point…

How Adobe can help the iPad and themselves

A few days ago Steve Jobs had an alleged rant about Adobe in a meeting screaming:

“Adobe are f#cking lazy! AHHHHHHH” – something like that

His comments were aimed mainly at Flash the fact he thinks it is buggy and this being the reason for not incorporating it into the iPad or the iPhone. Also saying the progress of HTML5 will make Flash more or less pointless for online videos.

However what he may have created with the iPad is the opportunity for Adobe to create a program/app so good for designers I think every designer would want it. If Adobe did get their finger out of their arse and created a PhotoShop app capable of allowing illustration with a pen straight onto the screen it could revolutionize the way we work.

It would turn the iPad into an awesome Wacom almost incomparable to other Wacoms. Small, sleek, sexy, it’s constantly connected to the internet, affordable, and most importantly, it could be superbly productive. For an app like this I would pay up to £200 for.

If you were able to create an illustration or a design layout within a PhotoShop app and then have the ability to save out the PSD you could put it on a USB device upload it to your main computer or even upload it on Dropbox through their free app on the iPad.

This wouldn’t be Apple going into the Wacom market it is them allowing programmers to make apps within the iPad that gives it the same ability’s of a Wacom. It would be small enough to carry everywhere in your rucksack/large handbag. You would be able to sketch down ideas while on the train in the park or even sitting in the pub!

The iPad already does have a working illustration app called Brushes which you draw with your finger. I personally feel this app just isn’t a strong enough reason for me to even think about buying the iPad as it is still so limited with layers and does not allow the creation of vector images.

I’m no genius when it comes to saying how the iPad will do sales wise but even if the iPad had just this one app, I would buy one and I have a feeling that a lot of designers illustrators out there would too.

Because of this, I’ve decided to create my own list of favourite iPhone design apps that I use, that will hopefully be of some help to you. If you use or know of any others that come highly recommend, please post a comment with the relevant details and I will try and review each one.

Apps for every Designer

Analytics £3.49

0.3MB

Tracking your websites on Google analytics? This is the best app for you. There is a problem with the current version when logging in with your Google account. Sometimes it fails to log you in, but apparently this issue has been fixed in the next update. It is slightly slow loading, however is worth the wait once your detailed site stats are visible.

Ego £1.19

1.0MB

Ego is a simple overview of your  Twitter, Feedburner, Squarespace, Google Analytics and Mint 2′s statistics for your sites. It’s a little bit unnecessary if you have the analytics app, but at least you can check your Mint and Feedburner stats through a single application.

WordPress Free

0.6MB

I was really happy to find that WordPress on the iPhone supports the full landscape keyboard feature. It has made it unbelievably easy to edit and write new blog posts via my iPhone. The app does lag a bit when browsing but the latest update has helped alot. Instead of waiting to get to work or home to my laptop I can now approve comments right away and writing posts has become a lot more fun while on the move.

Byline £2.39

0.3MB

Byline links to my Google Reader and collates all of my collected RSS feeds I read. Also links with the macs Program NetNewWire. I do however think it is slightly overpriced at £2.39.

Sherpa £3.49

0.6MB

If you use Basecamp for your task system then Sherpa is the app you’ll need while your away from the office. It enables you to switch between projects get to your messages , to-dos, milestones and contacts. The app works very quickly and I have never had a problem with it, Personally I think it is worth the £2.39 it costs if you use Basecamp a lot like I do.

Brushes £2.99

2.0MB

Brushes is definitely the best drawing app released so far. There are a good range of brushes and has an easy undo (soooo helpful). The ability to scroll beyond the edges of the picture is really helpful. Also the ability to use a photo from your gallery as a base for a painting or sketch you may want to create. Layer transparency is very helpful when adding photos to your little piece of work. I have recently bought an iPhone pen to use for this app and will update the review for this app and the pen together when I receive it.

SketchBook £1.79  SketchBook Express Free

3.0MB

I was using Sketchbook originally before I discovered Brushes. I found some of the brushes to be slightly laggy and i didn’t like the resizing tool at all, finding myself jumping in and out of the options menu far too frequently. I would definitely recommend Brushes for your iPhone sketching/painting app other this one.

cliqcliq Colours £1.79

0.4MB

There are plenty of colour apps on the iPhone but this is my favourite one. cliqcliq colours allows you to take colours from photos you have taken, which has been an inspiration on its own so far. It also allows you to email your colour palettes to yourself and other in formates compatible with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Awesome app!

iBlueSky £5.99

0.2MB

I do like this app but it it very overpriced for what it actually does. It allows you to create a mindmap whether you are on the train or in a meeting, then export them as a PDF via email. I would maybe wait till it drops down a little in price or a competitive app is created before spending your pounds on this. I tend to use my sketchbook for mindmaps as I want them down quickly without having to type on my tiny iPhone pad.

WhatTheFont Free

0.2MB

WhatTheFont is a great idea and I really wanted it to work a lot better than it currently does. It only recognises very High resolution images. Even when I tested it on Arial it gave me a list of really random fonts. A great start, I just hope they improve the character recognition at some point.

FontShuffle Free

3.1MB

Font Shuffle is a great first release and if some features are released for this app it will definitely be a must for all designers. Perfect way to search for fonts whilst out and about.

CSS CheatSheet £0.59

0.2MB

The idea for this app is sound and I have found it very helpful at times. It has however got  a lot of mistakes in the description of some of the code which is not very helpful. Useful to beginners. Also works offline for when your on the go.

HTML CheatSheet £0.59

0.2MB

This app is in the top 11 essential iPhone apps for designers by Daily designers. Once again like the CSS app some of the descriptions are rather vague but a must for developers needing a quick refresh on HTML now and then. Again it also works offline.

Javascript CheatSheet £0.59

0.2MB

Useful for beginners. Any hardened JavaScript coder will not find this app of much use as it pretty much covers just the basics. Be good to see what any new update brings hopefully a more complete reference. The app also works offline.

jQuery CheatSheet £0.59

0.5MB

The jQuery app is probably the best developer app out of the previous few cheatsheets. What is great about this app is you can actually edit the example code and then test the code out to see the changes in action. This app again also works offline.

Awesome Note £2.39 Awesome Note Lite Free

5.5MB

There are quite a few note systems for the iPhone but I personally wanted one that worked quickly and looked good while at it. Categorizing your notes helps sort work from play and as long as I check mine daily I don’t tend to forget alot like my bosses birthday party next weekend or a daft idea I came up with during the night. Maybe a little overpriced at £2.39 but it is pretty feature rich and very appealing to look at. The free version is worth testing out if you have been looking for a better note system. All round pretty awesome like its name says.

Apps for the Social Designer

Tweetie £1.79

0.7MB

As a designer it is vital to be up to date with all things social on the web the most important to me for research and meeting new people is Twitter. The best app for this after testing lots is Tweetie. It is by far the fastest Twitter app I have so far tested. Compared to other apps I have found it far easier to browse users details followers and @replys. You can choose in your settings what Twitter picture site you want to upload your photos too i.e. Twitpic, Yfrog and Mobypicture. I have however found that when uploading to Twitpic that it compresses the image so much it looks pretty shoddy. Also whatever test you put with the image does not appear within Twitpic. This is why I recommend also using the Twitpic app as well.

TwitPic Free

0.1MB

Twitpic is a pretty simple app it allows you to upload a picture from your current gallery or take one then and there and upload it right away to your chosen twitter account. When taking a picture within this app it will not save to your gallery. Your comment however will appear with your image on Twitpic and Twitter. Would be nice if you could browse your other uploaded photos hopefully they will feature this in a future update.

TwitVid Free

0.3MB

Twitvid allows you to upload your 3Gs videos to your Twitter account. A better looking app than the previous Twitpic one. Once again very simple just allows you to upload your video. Would be nice in future updates to get a full browse new videos section.

Facebook Free

1.3MB

The newest version of the Facebook has been great. Much simpler and fresher. As many designers may be promoting their sites as fan pages on Facebook I wanted to see how well they worked within this app. First off I found them very slow to load the RSS feeds that are usually within the wall section of the fan pages. I did however like the way the app allows you to add a fan page or friend to your main wall as a main options. Allowing you to quickly browse your favourite websites, musicians and friends updates.

The app however does not allow you edit any of your personal fan pages or groups whithin itself. We will have to keep using safari for this for the time being.

LinkedIn Free

0.9mB

For anybody who is a member of LinkedIn this app is pretty useful but has quite a lot of stuff still missing. It allows you to get the latest updates from your network, quickly find contact information from your linked professionals list. Learn more about a person you are going to meet and keep the rest of your network up to date with personal status updates.

A lot of the customers reviews are pretty bad for this app which I understand as premium members expect more from this app which is fair enough. The app allows you to send LinkedIn members a messages and add them to your address book. It doesn’t let you browse groups or LinkedIn members current topics. Just have to wait and see if they include all this in the next few updates.

Skype Free

5.4MB

As time has gone by I have found myself using Skype alot more to talk to my contacts worldwide. You can only make calls from Skype with wifi connection as 3G is not compatible.  Chat however does work with both. It’s not like I need to make phone calls with Skype anyhow.

Google Mobile App Free

2.6MB

This is a great application it runs bug free always returns pretty intelligent results and is very speedy 99% of the time. The awesome voice recognition system allows me to search for destinations while driving or out and about. If I am after a Chinese restaurant I just say it and then click the option ‘find one near me’.

Flickr Free

2.9MB

If your like anything like me and take your camera everywhere you pretty much go then you will probably want to keep a tabs on all your Flickr uploaded photography. You can even upload photos from your iPhone to your Flickr account. The app only allows one upload at a time though which is a little (very) painstaking. It also strips the photo of its geotag information. You can only choose to tag it with your iPhone’s current application. Hopefully this will all be fixed in future versions.

Delicious Bookmarks £0.59 Delicious Bookmarks Free

0.2MB

One of my favourite applications is this Delicious bookmarks apps. This is not an official delicious app but it works perfectly and allows me to fetch my bookmarks to my iPhone and also save more bookmarks within Safari.

Bump Free

0.4MB

As seen on the TV adverts Bump is a pretty well known app now and for good reason it works really well! I have been in meetings and needed several peoples contact details the easiest way to do this (if you all have iPhone’s) is Bump! Edit your personal profile adding as many of your websites emails as you like. Then connect and Bump details great stuff.

Mover+ £1.19 Mover Free

0.6Mb

Mover is handy now and then if you quickly want to give a colleague/friend a photograph, file or bookmark. Older versions stalled quite a bit but that is all sorted now. Mover+ has now got bluetooth but I find the free version fine for what I need. Everything you move across to a friends iPhone will automatically saved which is handy. Only works through wi-fi or bluetooth with the + version.

Apps for the constantly moving Designer

National Rail £4.99

1.8MB

National Rail used to have a great free app that did almost the same thing as this app with MyRail. But they killed that off and now ask for £5! Which is alot to be honest with you for this app. It tends to be 15minutes out a lot when I use it and doesn’t always show cancelled trains. If you do travel a lot by National rail however it will obviously be helpful. Journey planner and next home train features being of great use to me in the past.

TubeMap Free

1.1M

Here is a handy little free app that always helps me when I’m up in the Big Smoke. Full tube map with the Thames on it! Also a line status which is useful to check before the your trek into town.

PetrolPrices Pro £2.99

0.4MB

Like many I have been using PetrolPrices.com for many years and find it a pretty cool service. PetrolPrices Pro allows you to search for the 5 cheapest petrol stations within 5-20 mile range of either your current location or any other you specify. I use it a couple of times a month and find it pretty useful when on my travels.

UkTraffic £1.19

0.2MB

I downloaded UK Traffic purely on the fact I wanted to test it as the reviews for this app were not convincing me to buy it. However I have found it to be pretty much up to date apart from the odd road work or incident warning that has not been updated.

AroundMe Free

1.8MB

One of the best apps I have found for when I am in a town I am unfamiliar with. Finds every place you would possibly need. Best of all it is free and looks good!

Toilet Finder Free

1.1MB

Last but not the least toilet finder! This has to be my favourite app on the iPhone haha seriously handy when in a tight spot! Found myself so many times being in London or out at night needing a public toilet and this app just comes to my rescue every time. Unless you really like peeing in the nearest bush.

Total cost for all apps: £37.61

Total memory used for all apps: 40MB

Apps make the phone more functional and fun, with over 50,000 apps to choose from finding a well designed and great looking app is sometimes hard to find. The best apps are all about looking and acting simple while using the iPhone’s core functions such as multi-touch interface, GPS, camera and mic in interesting ways. Here we explore 5 great iPhone apps.

Evernote

Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and search-able at any time, from anywhere. You can create text, photo and audio notes and have them automatically sync with your MAC, PC and Web. And what more it’s all FREE.

Ego

Ego is an app that gives a central location to check the web stats that matter to you. Currently supporting Feedburner, Google Analytics, Mint, Squarespace and Twitter it might not be for every user but its great for finding number of visits to your site and the latest number of twitter followers all in one place.

Facebook

So everyone knows what Facebook is then? We included this in our list just because of what a great looking app this is (we even consider this design to be better than the actual site). This app is an extension of the site and helps you to stay connected with friends while on the go. A must for any Facebook lover.

Wheel of Tea

So the Wheel of Tea marketing line goes something like this… “Do you sit with the same people day after day at work? Do you always seem to be the one making the tea? Then it’s time to spin the Wheel of Tea in your office! Just add in your friends and let the wheel decide who’s making the next cuppa”. Nice huh? A simple app that’s fun to use and uses the iPhones multi-touch interface in an interesting way.

So What Next?

Well with downloads having topped 1 billion worldwide an app can become a great marketing tool and an extension of any brand. With popularity of the iPhone ever growing, technology evolving and interface designers constantly pushing boundaries – who knows. One thing for sure is we haven’t seen the best of the iPhone yet.